Revere senior Jason Tretter will continue his academic and football careers on scholarship at Purdue University.

Tretter is a 6-foot-7, 305-pound offensive tackle. He was an Associated Press Division II second-team All-Ohio selection as a senior and first-team All-Suburban League.

“When I went there I felt comfortable with the coaching staff, the university and all the players,” Tretter said. “It is obviously the Big Ten and I feel comfortable with that. I feel like the program is on the upswing.”

Darrell Hazell is Purdue’s new coach after guiding Kent State to an 11-3 record this past season and its first bowl appearance in 40 years.

Tretter, 18, said Hazell offered him a scholarship at KSU. Hazell and Boilermakers offensive line coach Jim Bollman recruited Tretter to Purdue.

Tretter missed all of his junior year when he injured his left knee and suffered tears in his PCL, MCL and medial meniscus. He returned to the field and put together a solid senior year. He will play in the All-Ohio North-South game in April.

“This is a huge accomplishment to come back from the injury and not let it bring him down,” said Phil Heyn, who coached Tretter at Revere. “The opportunity to play Big Ten football at an outstanding academic and athletic university is special.”

Tretter has a 3.7grade-point-average and scored a 29 on his ACT. He said he plans to major in biology at Purdue and pursue a career in the medical field.

Tretter also had scholarship offers from KSU and Toledo, and was garnering increased interest from a number of schools such as Virginia, Duke, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Harvard and Yale.

“His recruitment slowed for a bit but once he was 100 percent again and able to demonstrate his skill level during the season, schools began to take serious interest again,” Heyn said.